A writer's life – advice, works and musings by Wolfe Butler

Musicphile

In my last post, Decisions, I completely missed one of my biggest passions. Number two only to writing is music. Music is so much a part of my daily life that it is as constant as oxygen in the air around me.

I love how music can be a motivator. Who doesn’t love getting the morning started with a good remix to get your blood pumping? Music can be a comfort, when you have had that terrible day and just need someone to commiserate with you. Think REM’s Everybody Hurts. Music can be your rage, when you are so angry you just can’t see straight. Linkin Park was once my rage go-to group. Music can be your bond. What long time couple does not have a song or songs that define their relationship. And to me, music is the great memory inducer. Some songs transport me instantly to a time and place that I may otherwise never think about.

In my youth, for one summer, I was in love with a girl when George Michael’s Faith album came out. Those of you 40 and up will remember how much controversy revolved around that album, and for young people, that only drew us to it even more. That album became the soundtrack to our relationship. Faith was the start of our relationship, all happy and upbeat. Hard Day and Monkey came later when two teenagers were having a hard time navigating the rough waters of a relationship. I Want Your Sex led briefly to Father Figure with a possible pregnancy scare. One More Try came in after one of us made a serious mistake in judgement, but we were not ready to just end things. Kissing a Fool became the epitaph on our relationship tombstone.

To this day, now 30 years later, I cannot not hear any of those songs without being back in that teenage world. I do not know what happened to my Faith girl, but as long as those songs are played she will always be with me.